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Western Creeks & Streams Will Continue to Dry Up, Study Says
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on November 1st, 2013
Nature World News: A new study reports that drying climates in the American West will lead to a decrease in annual stream flow. In the Salt Lake City region, for example, researchers report the region could see as much as a 6.5 percent drop in the annual flow of streams that provide water to the city.
Writing in the journal Earth Interactions, a research team reports that by the middle of the century some of the streams that provide water to Salt Lake City will dry up several weeks earlier in the summer and fall....
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Climate Change Has Complicated Effects on Forests
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on October 15th, 2013
Nature World News: The most comprehensive review to-date of scientific papers on climate change effects on forests reveals a diverse set of consequences for forests across North America, according to researchers from Dartmouth University.
Writing in the journal Ecological Monographs, the authors say their analysis of 500 scientific papers reveals that climate change is the source of insect outbreaks in forests, plant diseases, wildfires and other problems in forests, but also that warmer temperatures are making...
Plastic Waste Threatening Lakes, Study Suggests
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on October 9th, 2013
Nature World News: Plastic waste poses an ever-increasing problem facing the world's oceans where fragile ecosystems are threatened by products that are essentially non-biodegradable. The Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, for instance, represent the world's largest landfills and are made up almost entirely of plastic, according to some estimates.
Now, research published in the journal Current Biology identifies significant amounts of the same pollutants in Lake Garda, located in the foothills of the Italian...
Livestock Steroids can Persist in Waterways. Study Finds
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 27th, 2013
Nature World News: Steroids given to livestock can stay in the water for a long time and don't always break-down, a new study has found. Researchers said that regulatory agencies might have to closely monitor some "safe" livestock steroids to prevent damage to the aquatic ecosystem.
Anabolic steroids are usually given to livestock to boost their growth and are generally believed to be harmless. But, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno and colleagues found that certain steroids such as trenbolone might...
Three Tiny New Species of Frogs Found in Papua New Guinea
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 20th, 2013
Nature World News: Three new species of frogs from the rainforests of Papua New Guinea have been descried in the latest edition of the journal Zookeys.
Each of the new frogs is incredibly tiny, with total body lengths about 20 millimeters. Their discovery came by way of Fred Kraus of the University of Michigan, who in 2011 described the frogs, Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa, which were then the smallest frogs known on Earth. In 2012 the description of Paedophryne amanuensis took the title of world's...
Climate Change Linked Higher Chemical Load in Polar Bear Diet
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 20th, 2013
Nature World News: Polar bears are changing their diets to adapt to climate change, a new study has found. Researchers also found that a change in the diet has led to increase in toxic chemicals in the bears' bodies.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Aarhus University (Denmark) and their colleagues. The team found that the diet of polar bears has changed over the past few decades and their tissue samples are showing high levels of contaminants.
Polar bears...
Underlying Ocean Water Melting Ice Shelf, Accelerating Glacier Movement
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 13th, 2013
Nature World News: Rising ocean temperatures, not atmospheric temperatures, are melting the Antarctic floating ice shelf Pine Island Glacier and possibly other ice shelves, an international team of researchers found.
The scientists examined the remote glacier, which represents a major outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, in hopes shedding new light behind its rapid thinning in recent years.
By placing a variety of instruments deep below the ice's surface and using radar to map the underside of the ice shelf...
Climate Change Not Felt Equally Throughout Europe: A Study
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 11th, 2013
Nature World News: Climate change is not equally felt throughout Europe, a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters shows.
Comprised of researchers from the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick, the team translated weather observations into climate change observations using a gridded dataset going back 60 years.
In doing so, they discovered that the hottest 5 percent of summer days warmed fastest in a stretch of territory from southern England and northern France to Denmark....
Great Lakes Asian Carp Invasion Inevitable, Researchers Say
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 11th, 2013
Nature World News: If the right conditions are present, the introduction of fewer than two dozen Asian carp to the the Great Lakes system could be enough to establish a thriving population of an invasive fish notorious for out-competing native fish for food and resources, according to new research published in the journal Biological Invasions.
Researchers from Waterloo University in Canada say the arrival of Asian carp, which are well-established in major waterways like the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, is inevitable...
Massive Aquifer Discovered in Kenya holds 70 Years Worth of Water, May Reshape Nation
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 11th, 2013
Nature World News: A newly-discovered aquifer in Kenya's arid Turkana region contains enough water to meet the nation's needs for the next 70 years.
The discovery of the Lotikipi Basin Aquifer was officially announced Wednesday at an international water security meeting of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) in Nairobi.
The find is certainly a boon for the African nation, especially in a region known to be one of the driest parts of Kenya. In addition to Lotikipi, four other water...